Hello friends and welcome. I’m Rwen and I’m a Demon Hunter junkie. I love the class, I love the play style, and I love killing demons. I’m here to help you get started in Inferno with my multi-part Demon Hunter Inferno Guide.

“Why Inferno?” Why not? “Isn’t it impossible?” It’s the end game difficulty level, and while it can be retartedly hard at times, it is playable given the right build and the right gear. Inferno is hard, it’s frustrating, it will make you rage and want to break your keyboard, but it is doable. There are many things that make Inferno an absolute bitch and, at times, suck the fun out of the game, but we can mitigate the difficulty a few ways. The only way that you have 100% control over is your build, so lets get started.

The Solo Inferno Build

This is a build setup for solo play in Inferno. This build is based off of my Demon Hunter Hell build, but with a few tweaks that are specific for Inferno.

Build Overview

At first glance, you’re probably thinking “OMGWTFBBQ? No [insert normal Primary skill here]? What is this Evasive Fire nonsense???” I said it before and I’ll say it again: “Evasion Fire is the next Demon Hunter nerf! Use it before we lose it!” This is your bread and butter, the backbone of everything in this build, and once you try it, YOU WILL LOVE IT.

At second glance, you’re probably thinking “HUH? NO CC?” Yes. No CC. CC in Inferno is broke. It will work on normal mobs, but we don’t care about normal mobs, we want to kill elites and bosses. “DUR IF YOU CAN’T CC HOW YOU BEAT MONSTERS?” By kiting. This build gives you the high mobility unique to the Demon Hunter class. You’re not going to stand in one spot and DPS a boss/elite/normal mob down in Inferno, you have to move, and this build trades some DPS for that movement.

Yes, there are other skill choices that offer higher DPS, but this build is for soloing Inferno. You can’t kill the enemy if YOU CAN’T STAY ALIVE! At this level, the game gets ridiculous. I remember walking into Act 1 fresh from killing Diablo on Hell on my 4th attempt and getting 1 shot by a normal zombie. “WTF!” It was rough. The damage of the mobs is insane. The health pools of the mobs are insane. The speed of the mobs are insane. In Hell, you can get away with being hit 1 or 2 times. In Inferno, the mobs will look at you funny and you’ll die.

This build is about survivability and sustainability, not getting the highest DPS. It’s designed to take advantage of your Nephalem Valor stacks and kill bosses. This build, when played properly, should allow you to beat 99% of the elite combos in Inferno.

Survivability is paramount. Demon hunters are one of the “glass cannon” classes of the game, and this becomes even more evident upon reaching Inferno. You will be 1 shot by the zombies in Act 1, the damage output of the normal monsters is just plain ridiculous. Think this is bad? Just wait until you get to monsters that actually move fast. This is why we use Evasive Fire. It keeps us out of melee range for a small Discipline cost (4), which keeps us alive, which keeps us farming mobs. Most elites in Inferno are insanely fast, and this helps you kite and survive.

Good damage output and great hatred regen. At 125% weapon damage and 4 hatred regen per shot, this is the most efficient damage per hatred regen skill we have.

Conical hit box of Coving Fire. Covering Fire fires out in about a 45 degree area, allowing you to quickly kill waves of mobs and clear environmental objects.

Evasive Fire shoots through the walls created by elite mobs. Most ranged attacks are blocked by these walls, but Evasive Fire goes right through them, allowing you to put more DPS on target. This can also be used on some other walls in the game, and around corners. There are some videos at the bottom that show this.

AOE Damage. OK, most people probably don’t think Nether Tentacles is a real AOE, but it hits every mob it travels through and it can hit them multiple times! Fast moving mobs may take 1-2 hits, while most mobs suffer 2-3 hits, making the actual DPS of this ability far more than 150% weapon damage. The damage output of this skill looks low at only 155%, and for that reason most players won’t touch it, but the ability to clear packs of white mobs with only 3-4 shots of this makes it invaluable.

Life Steal. This ability restores your life by 3% of your damage per hit. On fast moving mobs, this doesn’t mean much, but on slow moving mobs which get hit 2-3 times per shot, this starts to add up. This isn’t really that important for normal mobs clearing, but becomes amazing for elites and boss fights. This helps you take down those nasty Reflect Damage elites and on boss fights you’ll be glad you have this.

Can’t I switch this??? You can, out of all the skills in the guide, I would say this the most optional. However, I recommend trying it first. The reason this is here is not to be the top DPS ability, but to do great damage and give you more survivability.

Action Bar Skills

Keep on moving! In Inferno, you have to kite. You stand still and you die. The movement Vault provides is extremely important for kiting, getting away from avoidables, positioning, and escaping nasty elites (think Vortex, Plague, Molten, Mortor, Teleporter, etc.). Vault also allows you to get out of corning situations, allowing you kite into dead ends (useful in the dungeons at end of Act 1 or anywhere with long corridors where you can’t kite in circles.

You will use this more than once! Tumble is key to beating the super fast moving elite mobs you’ll encounter in Inferno.

You can use this to escape and reset the fight! Spamming Vault at full Discipline will allow you to out run any mob and get beyond their aggro radius. This alone has saved me multiple deaths and costly repair bills.

This is your Vanish! All my Rogue players know what I’m talking about! This is your only immunity ability and has endless uses in many situations like: breaking elite Jailor’s jails, escaping snares, avoiding incoming damage (think Molten elites and enemies that get into melee range). It can also be used to escape the Butcher’s meathook! This should never happen because you’re using this build have super mobility, but if it does quickly pop Smoke Screen and you will exit the stun and escape unharmed!

1.5 seconds is still worth it. This was nerfed hardcore due to massive exploits which are no longer possible, but it’s still long enough to drop aggro, reposition, and get back in the fight.

HEAL MEAH! This is your only heal outside of potions, and in Inferno, you will need it! This has saved me countless times and I can’t imagine soloing without it.

Endurance for kiting. This keeps you alive and gives you a lot of endurance in long elite and boss fights by making kiting very viable. If you can kite the enemy for 45 seconds, you can heal and get back in the fight.

BIGABDABOOM. This is where a lot of your damage will come from – 275% weapon damage AOE. This is amazing for kiting elites and clearing packs of mobs. The high hatred cost is offset by the fast hatred regen with Evasion Fire. You will have hatred because on most elites you won’t have time to spam Elemental Arrow since you have to keep moving.

Place them anywhere. You drop your traps where your mouse is, so you can throw them very far making them very effective.

Passives

Archery – DPS increase for any weapon. I normally use a 2 hand bow, but the bonuses from this skill are too valuable to pass up.

UPDATE – As you progress in Inferno, the hardest thing is to keep your DPS up. In the later acts, I use Sharpshooter over archery since it’s a greater DPS increase for me. This may vary for you guys based upon your weapon choices, Crit Rating, and Crit Damage. For me, using a 2 Hand bow with about 80% Crit Damage and only 5%Crit Rating caused Sharpshooter to increase my DPS by about 35%. So, if you want to kill things faster, try switching out Archery for Sharpshooter, it can help you beat the gear checks!

Steady Aim – 20% damage is nothing is in 10 yards of you. Evasion Fire backflip is 15 yards, so this will normally be in effect!

Tactical Advantage – OK, you’ve read this far and now you’re wondering “Hey, no Sharpshooter?” Yes, no Sharpshooter. Yes it’s a “mathematical” DPS loss on your character sheet, but it’s an overall DPS GAIN because YOU WILL LIVE LONGER! Here’s why this talent is move valuable than the god like Sharpshooter:

Super Speed! 60% movement speed, even for 2 seconds, is amazing in Inferno. You’ll kite better, escape better, live longer, and kill more demons because of this skill. The ability to reposition, or to run, will help you in all situations in this game.

Super Synergy! This talent is triggered from Vault, Smoke Screen, and the Evasive fire backflip. Hmmm…those abilities sound familiar… This talent works will all of this build’s core survival abilities! This makes it a must have!

Inferno is Kite or die! I can’t say this enough, you have to keep moving and have almost no time to stand in one spot and turret. “OK, but the critical strike buff stacks while you’re not using it, so while you’re kiting you build up more DPS.” This is true, but this argument is flawed in that it fails to consider how many times you’ll be able to actually strike the enemy before you run out of space, Discipline, or health. Until Inferno, I think Sharpshooter is a must have, but once you get into the end game, mobs move too fast and are not as effected by slows and CC as they were. You will NEED the speed boost that comes from this talent. Finally, remember this: “you can’t DPS a target if you’re dead.”

Videos

I’ve had a lot of requests to see how I play this build versus various elite combos. Below are some of the combos requested, if you’d like to see more request them in the comments!

Waller / Mortor / Reflect / Arcane Eels in Act 2

Waller / Jailor / Desecrator / Arcane Withering Decievers in Act 2

Waller / Jailor / Desecrator / Arcane Serpent Magus’s in Act 2

Illusionist / Nightmare / Teleporter / Frozen Naga Champion in Act 2. Spoiler Alert: I die in this one, but come back to finish them off

Siegebreaker Kill on Inferno. Nothing too exciting here, just kite, kite, kite, drop some traps, rinse and repeat. Some of you may notice at the end that I’m actually using Sharpshooter in this clip. I was giving it a test run and it really helps with the elites. I switched it with Archery and it was a big DPS increase, which helps since every new part of Inferno feels like a new gear check.

So there you have it. This build does take a little getting used to, but so does Inferno. If you’re having trouble in Inferno, I suggest switching to this build and then go back to HELL Act 4 and give it a shot.

Realize that while using a quality build is key, it’s only part of the puzzle. In my next post, I’ll cover what gear you should be upgrading to for your continual progression in Inferno.

Important: Many of the strategies and tips I share here were originally inspired by the people at the Diablo 3 Gold Secrets Forum. If you're serious about making the big bucks in Diablo 3, or just being the best players, you need to signup ASAP.

i’m currently on act 3 inferno and i think that backup plan would be a better choice for preperation, cuz if u get hit, u die anyway (no need for heal) and since the smoke screen is expencive, the extra proccs on prep are very nice!

the evasive fire… well, i always thought it to be super useless, but u make a very compelling argument, i’m definetly gonna try it!

currently using hungering arrow – devouring arrow or entangling shot – chain gang instead of evasive fire and multishot – fire at will instead of spike traps. rest is the same. (although multishot is not that great!

Yes, we as Demon Hunters get 1 shot all too often in Inferno, but by using Evasive Fire to keep out of melee range and by gearing appropriately, you should be able to take at least 1 hit and recover. There are times where death is just invertible and in these situations, I agree that Backup Plan has merit. However, over the course of the game, I think the self heal of Battle Scars is invaluable in most elite and boss fights, given you can survive 1 hit.

sounds about right, i just sacrificed all sustainability to get better dmg, so i could overcome the “gearcheck”. crappy gear + proper kiting were (so far) sufficient. well, i find out if surviving 1 hit will become invaluable soon enough ^^

i tried this build and tbh i found it awfull compared to my own spec…. i use entangling shot – lightning collar (dot + kite ), hungering arrow with fire dmg (dot), immobilizing trap lets u escape, these spells lets u kite them around while they are still taking dmg all the time

I was just curious what stat priority you used? I have been told by people that the most common is stacking crit and the other is IAS. I personally as I’ve been leveling have been stacking IAS, but I want to know what is best (If there is one that’s better than the other) for level 60. This is going to be my second 60 because I gave up on trying to do Inferno Act 2 on my Monk, and I want to make sure I’m doing everything right on my DH.

I’m going to cover this in a future article, but you have right idea. IAS (attack speed) is paramount for pushing your DPS to the next level. When looking for armor upgrades, I always look for IAS on gloves, rings, and amulets. I sacrifice Vitality for IAS, but not Dexterity. Look for those armor pieces with both.

You can’t find IAS on every item, but you can get it on gloves, rings, amulets, weapons, and quivers. Always go for IAS EXCEPT FOR WHEN IT’S ON A WEAPON! I’ll cover this in my next article!

Pigeon holing or being cornered is a tough one, but it’s also manageable. The main two causes of this are Waller elites who trap you, or the terrain.

The way I deal with Waller elites when there’s no possible opening in the walls is to Vault through them. You can try SS, but you’ll still have unit collision problems. This is ALWAYS a sketchy tactic, especially if you’re fighting Wallers with Molten or Posion which means you may be jumping right into a ground AOE. If that’s the case, then you can try popping SS and DPSing, and hope that the walls come down in time.

If you’re trapped in the terrain, that’s your fault. When I have to kite in hallways and reach an end, I do my best to get to the other side of the mobs, by either Vault (if its really tight and I know I can’t run by) or by SS (if they have ranged attacks that will make Vaulting likely to move me into a projectile).

Also, in a corning situation, DON’T USE EVASIVE FIRE. You’ll just backflip in place and burn your Discipline. Now you can go pro and Evasive once for the speed boost and try to run out, but if this happens, you’ll most likely die.

I’ll see if I can capture some videos of Wallers so you can see how I handle this.

For projectiles, you have to move. Just like raiding in WoW, the person who’s alive at the end of the fight does more DPS than the person who died in the fight. Stop DPS’ing the target and GTFO. This is key in Act 2 and beyond. Again, Evasive Fire isn’t designed to handle dodging projectiles, but that’s why you have SS and Vault. Hitting SS will render you immune if you use it at the right time.

I still use Sharpshooter with a 2H Crossbow for insane amounts of damage, but I wanted to say that I use a 2H CB with cold damage, which slows the mobs that it damages, so NT will actually 5 or 6 times on a mob with normal speed, 3 or 4 against fast mobs.

Thanks for the repy Rwen! I have been using your build for the past 3.5 lvls and have had a blast…its actually been a lot easier! Thank God for the auction house cuz I have got my DH rockin right now. I’m about to beat Normal mode, and yes I know this is an Inferno build but it works just as good for normal mode too. I currently am using a 2h bow w/ quiver and all geard out doing 970.20 dps at lvl 30 with almost 3k HP. Again, this build rocks, thanks again!

I had come to almost the same build on my own (6 of the 9 choices) though I can’t believe Tactical Advantage triggering off Evasive Fire results in an amazing kiting tool never occurred to me until I saw your argument for it! Definitely changing that around for my own build.

i pretty much breezed through act I inferno…then i hit act 2. now i die…A LOT. i had found your build previously, but since i didn’t have much of a problem i just kept on going without changing what i had used in hell much. now im gonna try it out though, hope it helps, i don’t feel like dying 10+ times on every blue group i find

Not at all. Nightmare is still pretty chill compared to Inferno, meaning you can take a hit or 2 without dying, so you have more options for your play style at this time because your survivability is higher.

Tactical Advantage makes sense to me. What I’d question is whether Sharpshooter’s crit percentage is more than the 15% extra damage you get from Archery with a bow (or the extra crit damage if using a xbow). It’s not a simple math problem as it depends on how much of your damage is continual fire vs bursts or high-crit probability traps.

For my build it seems that I’m firing off 3-4 NT then running to the next spot before firing again and the crit boost that way is amazing.

I haven’t played much with Evasive Fire though so I don’t know quite how this build plays.

Act II Inferno question for anyone: Is it normal to get one-shot anytime even a non-elite Lacuna hunter manages to jump on me or land a bomb? Any tips on either avoiding or surviving it? I do avoid probably 90% of the time, but even 10% means dying a lot to non-elites.

That is a great question about SS vs Archery, and I don’t know the definitive answer. I’ll look into it and see if I can put a post together about it.

As far as firing 3-4 bursts of Nether Tenticals, that’s pretty much what I’m doing also when kiting.

In Act 2, it is normal to be 1 shot by the Lacuna Hunters. Act 2 is a lot harder than Act 1 because the mobs are lv 61, and your resistances don’t help as much. Once I stacked up to about 100 resist and about 2600 armor, I was able to survive 1-2 hits. This can be mitigated by using SS right when they spawn to escape while your Templar taunts them.

one annoying thing about evasive fire i’ve found is that sometimes it causes you to backflip after the enemy has started his attack animation; which of course means that you get hit even if you are 15y away, this happens especially often versus elites with fast

In Inferno, you can’t just stand there and fire anything. The damage they do is phenomenally high and you can’t stack enough HP as a DH without sacrificing damage stats for survival ones (i.e. stacking stats like a Barb or Monk). If you’re going to give advice on an Inferno thread, please have Inferno experience.

Nice build, I do wanted to say I noticed AH prices for 1H or 2H DH weapons are crazily priced, I understand few mil for a good weapon but 1100 dps and above are going for 10 mil and above is way too high.

You’re right, prices are extremely high right now. But keep in mind that there are few people farming Inferno at the moment, so the rule of Supply & Demand is driving the prices up. As more people get to Inferno and start farming, the prices of these items will drop. If you’re unable to farm Inferno for your own gear/gold, maybe level an alt to give it a week or two for the prices to come down.

I use lightning ball most of the time and it does insane dps to a pack of units that bunched up together. Equipped with double crossbows of 800+DPS on each hand gives a base dps of at least over 16,000 DPS + all the high dexterity armor will easily boost to 18k – 20k. With this much DPS as base combine with lighning ball, it is super deadly in infernal

This is my current Inferno solo build. I’m only in Act I, so I will undoubtedly be tweaking this spec as I go, but I’ve done fairly well so far. The stun works especially well on elite packs and bosses.

Hey rwen, thanks for the build! I can’t wait to get home and try it. I will probably stick with the cookie-cutter SS builds for playing with friends, but this looks very viable for solo play. Wish I hadn’t dismissed evasive fire early on in normal when it was first unlocked!

For defensive stats, Armor and All Resists are key. Don’t go overboard on them, you’re not a tank, you just need to survive for that 1 hit. Try not to sacrifice Vitality to get them, but understand that tons of Vitality without Armor and Resists will still cause you to be 1 shot in higher Acts.

I am currently following a streight crit-build – stacking crit chance, and crit damage to maximum, with a high max dmg weapon – doing 3-hits to elites with impale to kill them.

In my opinion Evasive Fire is useless, since as a good kiter, you should never be in meele range.
Better get maybe a slowing trap with the root ability. Also I don’t like the discipline cost, since you have to save all discipline for SS / Vault.

I like impale a lot (the piercing one), much more than elemental arrow. Evasive Fire is not useless in my opinion. Just remembering about teleporters, heralds of pestilence or those “lickers” (soul*something*). Slowing trap or any slowing effect is useless against them because they just dont walk But if you 3hit elites to kill them (which Im not sure its really true ) , you dont need kite anyway.

I’m about 1/2 way through Act 3 have been soloing with this build the entire time.

You’re gearing a little differently than me, but that’s a setup I want to try. Right now, I prioritize Dex and IAS for DPS. I have very low Crit Chance and Crit Rating. You must have some impressive numbers to 3 shot elites. I’m currently at 42k DPS without Sharpshooter and using a 1k DPS 2 hand bow.

Evasive Fire is FTW, and there are many times when melee gets into melee range regardless of your kiting. I don’t like traps because the slows aren’t effective on most elites, and on the ones that I can slow, I’d be able to kill them easily anyways, so it becomes a wasted skill in this build. If you’re playing grouped, I think caltrops are good, since you need to slow a lot of the normal mobs due to the insane health pools.

4 discipline for a backflip that gives you a speed boost is awesome when used right. In the videos I posted there are a few times where fast enemies get in melee range of me and I stutter step, Evasive Fire backflip, and get out of range. I agree that if you’re not careful you will run out of discipline, but it shouldn’t be happening too often. Vortex Molten Jailor Fast comes to mind, and depending on the type of mob, I’d probably just skip it.

I changed to this after I got stuck in act2. It is still pretty hard but much better – at least it is possible to take down those elite packs. And act1 is a piece of cake now..

But what I would like to know: What about ur stats (dex, vit, armor, hp, dps, resistances). Is there any sense to go for some defensive stats to survive one hit? Or is there no chance to increase the survivabilty via stats?

I am now at ~22k hp and ~28k dps and I wonder if i should focus on dps or hp with next items..

Ah,and one last question: How high is ur discipline/discipline regen? I feel like I could use some more .. Or maybe i still have to get used to this build a little more to manage my discipline better

For this build I don’t think it’s necessary. There are very few times when I can just stand and dump hatred since I spend a majority of my time in battles versus elites where I have to kite. By properly using traps and NT, you should be able to dump your hatred quickly and then kite around while it recharges. The one thing I do love about this skill is the regen from health globes! That extra discipline can really save you, but again, you have to go with the build that will allow you kill 90% of the elites out there, and there are sometimes when health globes aren’t available.

Now if you were playing grouped with a good tank, I think it could work since you’d likely be able to stand still more.

Amazing Build, i still prefer Sharpshooting to Steady Aim, cause while Kiting you are stacking probabilities to Crit, and DPS counts on everyhit landed, btw thanks for the tips, i am really enjoying your build.

You’re in luck because I have a video of me fighting these kind of elites. I’ll upload it ASAP.

Until then, you’re best bet is to kite around terrain features, dropping spike traps. The go invisible for about 5 seconds at a time, during this time keep moving to avoid them popping up on top of you. They’re hard, but with practice you can beat them.

in another direction if u want to survive and be able to stand there attacking in inferno use shadow power with gloom preperation with battle scars caltrops with extra slow (pretty much just for elites) then get rain of vengence stampede rune for kiting super helpful for any elite mostly blues bc it wont knock back yellows (only minions)hungering arrow either devouring or puncturing which ever u prefer and obv elemental arrow nether tentacle for obscene damage. try it out the 65% dmg reduction and 23% LS makes it so u can basically tank mobs (even some elites for the amount of time u need to kill them. Granted this spec is improved by high vitality and high resist all a certain level of each is mandatory.

Wow, I was using a build that I made up and went from 1-60 and killed diablo in hell. I just looked up builds for the first time going into inferno because I hear its such a muther. Well I love this build, I cant belive I never used spikey traps or evasive fire! I didnt think id be able to play without SS but wow this build rocks my socks! THANKS!

Finally something different from hungering arrow, nether tenacles, lingering fog, preparation, bat, trap/mark of death that everyone use. But this build seems strong for good players. Noobs like me need more stuns (useless against rare because they are most of times stun immune). For me is the most save-life skill smoke screen and rain of vengeance (stampede or flying strike). Flying strike do stun for so long that you can revive partner in bossfight. I will try it for sure but Im also sure I need more training.
One question. Do you have any lifesteal in your gear? Reflect damage creeps are the hardest for me, Im killing myself so fast and nothing except Nether Tenacles + Smoke screen is not working well.
Greets and thank You.

Thanks! It takes a little getting used to, but I think you’ll find the increased mobility offers a play experience that’s more enjoyable and allows you to kill more elite combos.

No, I don’t have any life steal on my gear, and I use Nether Tentacles and Smoke Screen for Reflect Damage mobs as well. With a health potion and your heal from Prep Battle Scars, you should be able to outlast them, however, Reflect damage mob fights normally take me a while since I have to kite so I don’t kill myself.

I just wanted to thank you for this awesome build. I haven’t gone all that far in Inferno (act 2) but the playstyle that you suggest is very rewarding and saved my ass oh so many times already (Evasive fire is sooo good).

I have pumped my vitality back up a little bit (~21k pv)and keep on working on my dps (~50k without Sharpshooter, of course) and the build seems to become more and more efficient as I go.

One thing I noticed though is that we rely a lot on Discipline, making a +10 disc on quiver pretty useful. I have decided to try sacrificing 1k dps for +10 disc and the result is more viability as I can do 2 Smoke screens and 1 Vault with one full bar of disc. Pretty happy about it.

I know you might be in the process of writing it but I feel like a segment on what gear to look for would be very useful. I feel like I have gotten around knowing what I need but it takes time (and money).
Maybe something saying: On that item type, you can get these characteristics and you should be looking for at least that much. Or perhaps even posting your equipment so we can compare!

Anyway, thanks again for this great guide and this amazing build. I have been looking at the game from a totally different perspective

I find it rather amusing, reading how to get certain items for the Staff Of Herding and yet I see this on the side which got my attention. I was using a level 60 DH for a while until recently because I was getting sick of the ownage on Inferno and Hell (I’ve most likely got crappy ass gear lol). I checked the skills you suggest and read everything like explaining in details the reason for the skills and that has made me want to give it another go with my DH. I need to improve my gear anyway so I have an idea on what to look out for but i’m certainly looking forward to giving this a shot!

I love soloing since I can go at my own pace so i’d like to thank you for posting up this great guide. I’ll be certainly mentioning down the track how I go.

how much dmg reduction do you have from armor/resistance(% of course)? and how much dmg do mobs from act III do generally? how much do you die on elites that have it easy to make their way up to you? and right now i think im wasting way to much gold on gear that i don’t need cause im uncertain as to what to go for, point is; when is your next post?

i have written down my thoughts on your build as well, but it’s quite the wall o’ text, so do you want me to post it here? (it’s mostly my experience with your choices, as well as what i have found working better/worse for me)

I tryed out this build, I killed 5 elites, got my 5 stacks, and killed Kull. I died only once awesome, I still feel that I need to get to use to it, but I met Damage reflection mobs pretty often, and that Life steal elemental attack didn’t steal enough, I have 45k HP and 34k DPS, those Elemental arrows crit about 80k, and that will be some serius damage to me . Do I need life steal on the weapon as well ? Thanks for a great strategy, made this class fun to play again, I was so disappointed when they nerfed my Smoke screen.

I know what you mean about the Reflect Damage mobs, they can be a pain and I’ve killed myself a few times from having some big crits lol. Try to use Smoke Screen when you DPS, it causes you to not take any reflected damage, and make sure you’re using your potions and Prep with Battle Scars. Other than that, just take it slow and try to kite back to where you may have some health globes laying around from normal mobs.

I had to comment on this build. I’m working my way through Hell at the moment, and this build was like night and day. It works wonders. Thank you so much! I am still getting used to the hotkeys, but it is working very well.

I gave the setup a go and damn is it hard to get used to. I’ve tested it a bit on Inferno and I suppose there was a bit of improvement for me but I still need to really get used to this new setup haha Really enjoying it though! Thanks again.

gr8 guide. I switched the skillset recently and i must say the game become less painfull and more fun. actually with my crappy hell items that gives me 18k dps (w/o sharpshooter), 21k hp, 3k armor and resists ~250 (dual wielding) i am able to solo a1 almost w/o a single death. currently i got to kull and going to kill him tomorrow. I got one advice to people who are playing this skill setup.: try to use SS with displacement. In my opinion it is much better than lingering fog and here is why.: since in my experiance SS is used mainly (if not only) to break CC and avoid “unavoidable” projectile/hit we dont really need that extra 0,5 sec duration. In other hand its very nice to be much further from the enemy when he load that next hit to blow off our head after the fog is over and displacement is that extra 5-10 yards distance which in case of this build is a gr8 synergy.

Evasive fire IS great, but I prefer smoke screen with special recipe (-2 disc cost). Right now I don’t have any + max disc gear, which i should have, so at 30 max disc, the -2 cost allows me to squeeze in another smoke screen before I hit prep (I use SS at a certain interval. ) I also find it hard to dump hatred with elemental arrow while running around, so i switched to impale. I have around 30% crit chance and 180% crit damage, The friggin dagger crits for 70-90k on all the mobs in a row, and it will do twice if i throw fast enough.

At first I thought “This doesn’t seem so good…” but when I started using it, I realised that it’s awesome! I’ve just soloed the whole act 1 on Inferno with only 1 death. I’ve taken the liberty to change a few things in the build, because I liked it better that way.
Thanks for the build!

Great build! I was getting bored of my DH in Act 1 Inferno ’til I found this build of yours. It really improved my game and helped me survive longer. Though I am having problems with discipline, I think I can get away with it. Overall, nice build, Very effective. Never been excited to play my DH since I got to 60. )

I was using this myself except i was using hungering arrow as my primary. Switching to evasive fire works better. As you say it shoots through walls and it helps if you get too close to quickly jump back and run away for little discipline. I like it. The only other thing i was doing differently and still do do differently is i trade steady aim for sharpshooter because i use a 2hand crossbow at min so it makes sense to do this. Should i find a better bow instead, then id switch it then to yours. Im never really fussed between crossbow and bow i just use the best i have available and switch passives based on that. With my old build id be ok with elite packs 6 or 7 times out of 10. Now its like 8 or 9. Obv occasionally you just get really unlucky with jailer mobs etc and you have no discipline and ya thingy one is on cooldown and they jail you then the next one jails you imediatly after and theres flames everywhere etc, sometimes it is just luck if you die in this game but mostly good skills count for a lot.

Hey, thanks for spending your time and sharing this intresting build with us.
I’m currently at level 58, A3 hell with my DH.
I found this guide a couple of days ago and have been saving it. At A 4 I’ll switch to this build in order to get used to it for inferno.

interesting build…i have some overlap but the philosophy/play style is drastically different. i’ll have to give this build a try sometime.

i use entangling shot + chain gang for kiting purposes instead of. spike traps will vary with rain of vengeance + stampede depending on the area i intend to farm. i use bat companion vs. vault for you…the bat is useful when i play with my friend who tanks on his monk and i can stand around and fire with impunity. i don’t like having an extra discipline draining skill since i rely on smoke screen every time a mob so much as glances in my direction and the lack of other useful DH skills has me keep this one. i also have backup plan for preparation; battle scars seems lackluster considering i get one-shot anyway. but the RNG on it is definitely frustrating.

entangling shot is my main source to kite, i get about 3-4 shots off and a few nether tentacles before i need to run away, and properly swinging your mouse you can keep them at a distance indefinitely. the only issue are the teleporting elites or soul lashers; you need cat-like reflexes to hit your smoke screen or you will die.

spike traps with scatter are awesome for spots with many doorways. but rain of vengeance is a really great stalling skill (except vs. champions) when i’m out of discipline and preparation is stil on cooldown.

i think your build requires more careful monitoring of your discipline to make sure evasive fire doesn’t eat up all of it (with tactical advantage i imagine this threat is low). my build admittedly requires the player to have good environmental awareness as you need A LOT of space sometimes to adequately kite. what do you think?

a note on sharpshooter: sometimes i throw caution to the wind and tank an elite spamming smoke screen and preparation (even though the duration and cooldown don’t align perfectly, unless it’s a fast hitting mob you’ll be okay), giving me about 12 seconds to kill it before i either zone out of get one-shotted. that’s probably why i use this skill more than anything else.

Tried this build on 2nd chapter in Inferno as I was getting to the point of simply running away from elites. Took a little getting used to but have now been able to hold 5 stacks and had a legendary drop. Thanks for the ideas.

awesome build, completely redid mine after reading your guide, works well, though I did swap the ele arrow for rapid fire, personal preference I guess, need to get used to the traps, I always used chaks

Thanks for sharing this. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now and it’s making things easy to farm in Act 3 for sure.

With a crit damage type build (2H Crossbow), do you recommend keeping Steady Aim or switch to Marksmanship? I also feel like swapping out Tactical Advantage for Marksmanship works nicely depending on the farm spot you pick.

Nice build this.
Been playing around with different spec, however this one is to my liking.
Best advantage for this build is the mobility, and shooting through those elite walls.
Had to lose steady aim for sharpshooter dps wise,
which increased my dps.

Still not sure which follower is best.
Wizard increases IAS, knock back
Scoundrel increases DPS on crits + slow
Templar tanks and heals/reg
Currently I have the scoundrel walking with me.

Thanks for pointing out evasive. Currious to see the gear-build in this one (hopefully not only xxx million on AH ^^).
Cheers

Rwen, this skill set is working really well. I was using Hungering arrow & Impale/overpen with Caltrops, Tumble, Bat companion, and rain of arrows… but this build you have here is truly epic. The damage avoidance factor is awesome. My survivability in ActII Inferno literally tripled, and I think my DPS even went up too (love using the scatter bomb!). And yes, much synergy with the Tactical Advantage passive. I feel like I can lose some of my Resist All gear and start focusing on damage again. You’ve given my Demon Hunter new purpose. Thanks!

Fantastic build Rwen!!! I changed my DH now level 50 to this build and I went straight into a public games with players LVL53 and above in ACT 4 NM.
Guess what!! Those guys died at least 4 times during a crazy mob encounter and i managed to survived and cleared the mobs using this build for the 1st TIME!!!!
And this build is so much fun. I’m currently using lightning ball for elemental arrow and Long fuse for spike trap. will change to NT and scatter once my lvl is higher enough.
Is really great, you guys out there sld give this build a try!!

Was wondering what your doing about your spec since the Demon Hunter Nerf, I was using your spec for my wife until 1.0.3 but now her dps is lacking severely with Nether Tentacles. Did you change your spec?

You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.
The only thing that I can complain about the whole thing is about the reflect elites. While I don’t have a Natasha set (is that the name?) for infinite discipline, I can’t keep spamming smokescreen. It’s possible to kite, but it would be nice to be able to cause damage when SS is down. I was thinking about gearing with a few steal life or life on hit gear for that purpose, combined with nether tentacles maybe it could be enough to negate the reflect…

I’ve run into one particular situation that has me ready to throw my keyboard. Several times I’ve entered caves (ZKs cave, the flooded cave, and some others) and I run into a champ/elite within the first small space of the environment. I have 0 room to kite as going forward throws me into other mobs that I have to deal with.

Any advice for how to handle a build like this in very cramped quarters?

From what I can tell, 1.0.3 just means that EA-NT is no longer the indisputable “best” hatred sink for every build under the sun — honestly, the nerf was the right move. NT isn’t awful now; it’s just not so out-of-line with the rest of the DH skill set.

Anyway, EA-Screaming Skull or EA-Lightning Bolts offer a little CC that can increase survivability; EA-Ball Lightning still works nicely for clearing garbage on Hell runs. Impale-Grievous Wounds does nice ST damage, letting me thin out troublesome packs one by one (focusing fire helps with the situation @Bryan mentioned). This build doesn’t really include enough hatred generation for Multishot, although its Suppression Fire rune does offer a tempting discipline regen option. Strafe-Drifting Shadow or Strafe-(DPS rune) works nicely for kiting fast/”sticky” packs.

Hello, I’ve been using this build for quite a while… It’s really useful. I have a question though, now that nether tentacles were nerfed.. are they any good anymore? I’m currently using elemental arrow with frost.

Thanks for the guide! I found the greatness of evasive fire a while back but I was struggling with the rest. I’m blazing through hell now and on my way to inferno. Using these tactics, the DH is much more fun and more challenging.

Since the update, have you changed any of your tactics? Also, what particular health stats do you put heavily into? (life regen, life on hit, ect.)

we as DH both love Caltrops with Jagged rune until Inferno, with this kind of build it works great without Caltrop,
I’ve tried it but always find myself lacking of discipline since i always use at least 2-3 caltrops in a row. So better say goodbye and get used to spike trap

Just reached inferno on my 4th character, my demon hunter. I must this guide is pretty damn sweet. I only had to change 2 spells and 3 runes on spells I was using to match it and the survivability is great. Thanx for the guide

Im wondering if you find a champ that have Dmg return, and you dont have the skill that life steals, The 3 percent from element arrow are super low and it sometimes will make you run out of hatreds. How do you fight them, and i found Rare that have unkillble minions make things REALLY hard.

Absolutely loved this build. I was highly skeptical but thought I’d try it after getting bogged down on the very first guy in act 4. The one with all the shadow vermin. I just couldn’t stay away. Took 3 attempts with this build. Then 1 shot all of act 4 save for 2 deaths to Diablo. This was really good.

One suggestion might be to explain how to turn elective on in order to set it up like this. If I hadn’t already played around with that feature I would’ve been completely lost.

I’ve been using this build for a little while now and enjoying it. Evasive fire with covering fire feels fairly exploitive and I won’t be surprised when Blizzard nerfs it.

In particular with a slow 2H weapon, attack rate goes way down, the damage goes way up, meaning you are spending and accumulating points at a slower rate. With items that improve the refresh enough, I don’t really have to worry about depleting hatred, but I do still have to worry about spending all the discipline. What feels exploitive in particular is the fact that evasive fire when a leap is triggered ignores the attack rate, so you can rapid fire several shots in amazingly quick succession when getting rushed by an elite. That’s going to get nerfed.

SICK BUILD! ONLY KEPT BACKUP PLAN FOR PROCS. There is no downside to playing this spec. Synergy as stated:D thanks a lot. Switched from elemental ball-hungering , caltrops(imob) ss(lingering) spike with long fuse(might keep this one after all because all this mobility helps me put the mobs where i want and give my DH more output in dps especially in corners). Just need to get used to it. Other than that it is Hugely effective!

Try to find a spot where you can kite them in circles, like around a terrain feature. Another tactic is to try to seperate the minions from the main, lead them far off, and then spam Vault to out range them. After this you can normally go back and single pull the main.

Even if the guide looks promising, it still cant compensate the biggest weakness of the game. The gear. How u get it exactly. Its not like u go to a boss and have lets say 5-10% chance to drop the item u want.

I got Sharpshooter (Passive Skill) because it boost your DPS. You gain 3% Critical Hit Chance per second. I use Rapid Fire (Fire Support)because you shoot 10 Arrow +/- per second and with the Fire Support Rune you shoot 3 homing rockets. When you have the Fire Support Rune on youhave a good Passive Skill ofr that. The name of the Passive Skill = Ballistics. I ue a 2 handed crossbow because with the Passive Skill called Archery you do 50% Critical Hit Damage.
I have a Bat Companion because i will gain 3 Extra Hatred per second. I will show you my Build
This is my Build: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/demon-hunter#ackdXT!hTe!cbaaZZ